After conducting further investigations in the surrounding villages, Bhaktivinoda Thakura returned later with one hundred red-turbaned police armed with rifles. Bishkishin asked, “What is the meaning of all this?” Bhaktivinoda Thakura said, “They have come to take you. It is the Governor’s order that you should be brought to Puri.” Bishkishin retorted, “Who is this Governor? I am king, for I am the Supreme Godhead and master of all the universes. I bow down before no one. Let us see who is able to take me away from this place!” (Macnaughton 1989, p. 115) Bhaktivinoda Thakura replied (Macnaughton 1989, p. 116), “If you do not go peacefully, we will be obliged to take you away by force.” Becoming angry, Bishkishin challenged, “I order you to immediately leave this place! Let us see who has the power to take me!”
Macnaughton (1989, p. 116), relying on contemporary accounts, stated, “The yogi shook his head violently, whereupon hundreds and hundreds of fiery flames like burning snakes began to fly out of his matted locks. The yogi’s eyes then became bright red and sparks of fire shot out of them. Seeing this, the police force was terrified and fell back apace.” nevertheless, Bhaktivinoda Thakura arrested Bishkishin and took him to the city of Puri on a bullock cart. In Puri, Bishkishin was placed in solitary confinement under heavy guard, day and night. He fasted completely and did not sleep at all. Eventually he was put on trial.
After the sixth day of the trial, Bishkishin threatened Bhaktivinoda Thakura (Macnaughton 1989, p. 118), “You must immediately desist from prosecuting me or everything you have will be destroyed. Go to your home now and see what disaster is taking place there!” When he returned home, Bhaktivinoda Thakura found one of his daughters had suddenly succumbed to severe fever and was falling in and out of consciousness. She later recovered, but Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s wife urged him to withdraw from the case against Bishkishin, fearing further actions by the yogi. The day before trial ended, Bishkishin said to Bhaktivinoda Thakura (Macnaughton 1989, p. 119), “The final day of my judgment will be your death!” That night Bhaktivinoda Thakura felt intense pain in his chest, which continued into the morning. finally, he felt well enough to write the final judgement, and he was carried into the courtroom on a palanquin. He found Bishkishin guilty and sentenced him to a prison term. As Bishkishin was being led out of the courtroom, the district medical officer, dr. Walters, knowing that yogis sometimes conserve their powers in their hair, cut off his long hair. Having lost his hair, the Bishkishin collapsed, powerless, and Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s chest pains immediately disappeared. In 1873, Bishkishin took poison and died in prison.
The Society for Psychical Research
In 1876, British physicist Sir William fletcher Barrett, later a fellow of the Royal Society, read a paper on telepathy to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Barrett asked that a scientific commission be formed to research such things. Many prominent British scientists dismissed the idea, but Barrett got a favorable response from the physicists Sir William crookes and Lord Rayleigh. Joined by scholars such as Henry Sidgwick, f. W. H. Myers, and Edmund Gurney, Barrett helped found, in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). In 1884, he became the first editor of the Society’s journal. during a visit to the United States, he influenced William James and other American scholars to start the American Society for Psychical Research. By 1887 members of the English Society for Psychical Research included Gladstone (a former prime minister), Arthur Balfour (a future prime minister), eight fellows of the Royal Society (naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace; cambridge astronomer John couch Adams; physicist Lord Rayleigh; physicist Oliver Lodge; A. Macalister; mathematician John venn, inventor of the venn diagrams; physicist Balfour Stewart; and physicist J. J. Thomson, a discoverer of the electron), two bishops, and the literary figures Alfred Lord Tennyson and John Ruskin. Lewis carroll, author of alice in Wonderland, was also a member (Gauld 1968, p. 140).
Among the members of the American SPR were many famous American astronomers, including Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834–1906), secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (nASA’s Langley Research center is named after him). Simon newcomb (1835–1909), a canadian American astronomer, served as president of the American SPR. He also was a United States navy admiral and professor of mathematics at the naval Observatory. Other astronomers who were members of the American SPR were Percival Lowell (1855–1916), Harvard professor of astronomy and founder of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona; Edward c. Pickering (1846–1919), MIT physics professor and Harvard astronomy professor; and William Henry Pickering (1858–1938).
William F. Barrett’s Research
In addition to helping found the Society for Psychical Research, Sir William f. Barrett was himself a researcher. One of his earliest experiments took place in dublin, in the late nineteenth century. Barrett attended a séance, in which the medium was the daughter of a well known photographer. He called her Miss L., and her father, Mr. L. The séance was held in light sufficient for Barrett to see everyone and everything in the room. Present were only Barrett, Miss L., and Mr. L. They sat for some time at the table. Barrett (1918, p. 44) recalled: “We all removed our hands and withdrew a short distance from the table. Whilst the hands and feet of all were clearly visible and no one touching the table it sidled about in an uneasy manner. It was a four-legged table, some 4 feet square and heavy. In obedience to my request, first the two legs nearest me and then the two hinder legs rose 8 or 10 inches completely off the ground and thus remained for a few moments; not a person touched the table the whole time. I withdrew my chair further, and the table then moved towards me,—Mr. and Miss L. not touching the table at all,—finally the table came up to the arm chair in which I sat and imprisoned me in my seat. When thus under my very nose the table rose repeatedly, and enabled me to be perfectly sure, by the evidence of touch, that it was quite off the ground and that no human being had any part in this or the other movements. To suppose that the table was moved by invisible and nonexistent threads, worked by an imaginary accomplice, who must have floated in the air unseen, is a conjecture which sceptics are at liberty to make if they choose.”
In december of 1915, Barrett was introduced by a dr. crawford, a lecturer on mechanical engineering at Queen’s University, Belfast, to a family, which Barrett described as “highly respectable and intelligent.” crawford had been investigating psychical phenomena taking place among the family members during séances. The medium was the eldest daughter, who was seventeen years old. during the sittings for which Barrett was present, the room was lit by a gas flame in a red lantern. describing one set of experiences, Barrett (1918, pp. 47–48) stated: “A tin trumpet which had been placed below the table now poked out its smaller end close under the top of the table near where I was sitting. I was allowed to try and catch it, but it dodged all my attempts in the most amusing way; the medium on the opposite side sat perfectly still, while at my request all held up their joined hands so that I could see no one was touching the trumpet . . . Then the table began to rise from the floor some 18 inches and remained so suspended and quite level. I was allowed to go up to the table and saw clearly that no one was touching it, a clear space separating the sitters from the table. I tried to press the table down, and though I exerted all my strength could not do so; then I climbed up on the table and sat on it, my feet off the floor, when I was swayed to andfro and finally tipped off. The table of its own accord now turned upside down, no one touching it, and I tried to lift it off the ground, but it could not be stirred; it appeared screwed down to the floor. At my request, all the sitters’ clasped hands had been kept raised above their heads, and I could see that no one was touching the table;—when I desisted from trying to lift the inverted table, it righted itself, again of its own accord, no one helping it. . . . It is difficult to imagine how the cleverest conjurer with elaborate apparatus could have performed what I described.”